


How to Fall

by innocent_until_proven_geeky



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Getting Together, Gift Fic, Happy Ending, M/M, No Beta We Die Like Clones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:53:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28258749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/innocent_until_proven_geeky/pseuds/innocent_until_proven_geeky
Summary: I'm running in circles, jumping over hurdlesWorking on a song to singI want to tell you how I'm feeling, finding it hard to do'Cause I don't know how to say it, don't know how you'll take it,Don't know how to fall in loveBut I want to learn with you
Relationships: CC-2224 | Cody & CC-3636 | Wolffe, CC-2224 | Cody/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 14
Kudos: 139
Collections: Star Wars Secret Santa 2020





	How to Fall

**Author's Note:**

  * For [glimmerglanger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glimmerglanger/gifts).



> This fic is a Secret Santa gift for [glimmerglanger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/glimmerglanger), an author whom I love and adore. When Hawk told me I would be writing for you, Glimmer, I just about fainted. I hope this fic makes you as happy as your fics make me.
> 
> The title for this work comes from [How to Fall by Josh Wilson](https://open.spotify.com/track/0AhtBCo5U6JjoYSUfBiPLn), and the structure of the story more or less follows the structure of the song. ~~Okay, it's a songfic, sue me.~~ Enjoy!

“Hello.” Obi-Wan Kenobi held out his hand and plastered a pleasant, if noticeably false, smile onto his face. Certainly he was less than thrilled at the prospect of war, and downright dreaded even the idea of being in charge of a _slave army_ , of all things, but he wasn’t going to take it out on the men assigned to him.

He forced himself to beam at each of the men he shook hands with in turn, and ask for names. Most of their eyes flashed with something like surprise, and occasionally distrust; some of them didn’t have names, only designations, and even those who did have names would offer their serial numbers in addition.

They were all pretty well identical.

He was in charge of, all told, nearly three hundred thousand identical men.

He had to try, very hard, to focus on the faces in front of him, even as they blurred together against his will. He wanted to get to know them, truly. But _three hundred thousand_. He was still reeling from being offered a seat on the Council in the first place. And the start of the war! And….

“Cee-Cee-Twenty-Two-Twenty-Four, sir. Kote, he-him-his.”

Obi-Wan smiled at Kote and shook his hand. “Very nice to meet you,” he said warmly, and tried to mean it.

It was easier to mean it when Kote smiled back, and the corners of his eyes crinkled pleasantly with the expression. The other commanders and--mostly commanders, actually--shared Obi-Wan’s false smile, but this one from Kote was genuine, and Obi-Wan’s heart fluttered a little.

“I should hope so, sir,” Kote said. “I’m one of the Marshal Commanders assigned to your Systems Army. You’ll be working with me a lot.” He smiled again with a flash of teeth, and moved on, allowing the next clone to take his place.

:::

Through all of the assigning Jedi to corps and battalions to clone Commanders, assigning Commanders to Marshal Commanders and Captains to companies and a hundred other words for the organization of the Grand Army of the Republic in which Obi-Wan Kenobi was now a High General--through all of this, Kote stuck right beside him, even when he didn’t have to, and Obi-Wan counted it a blessing and a relief that Kote ended up being not _one of_ but _the_ clone whom he would work closest with, when it was all said and done.

Obi-Wan breathed slowly and ran a hand through his hair. The tea the Army provided was, for all intents and purposes, atrocious, but he took a sip and made a face anyway at the exact moment there was a knock on his door and it _swished_ open, alerting him to Kote’s presence. He turned to face him and smiled at the sight of a steaming mug.

“You spoil me, my friend,” Obi-Wan said, rising to take the warm cup from Kote. “Where do you keep finding these?”

“That’s classified information, sir,” Kote deadpanned, and dropped into the chair next to Obi-Wan’s desk with little fanfare.

It hadn’t taken them long to settle into a comfortable rhythm with each other. A small part of Obi-Wan wondered if they had perhaps known each other before they were born, although that seemed absurd--life, the Force, didn’t seem to work that way, in his experience. But his friendship with Kote had developed more smoothly even than his friendship with Quinlan, and Kote seemed to feel similarly, if the way he relaxed around Obi-Wan and Rex and no one else was anything to go by.

“I see,” Obi-Wan teased, sitting down into the chair he had only just vacated and taking a sip of the fresh tea, which tasted suspiciously like spiced nysillim. After he swallowed, he raised his brows at Kote. “I don’t recall going to Lothal recently,” he added, mock conversationally.

Kote resolutely refused to blush, but Obi-Wan could feel the wash of mild embarrassment and fondness that radiated from him in spite of his efforts. “It was my brother Ponds’s idea,” he said. “He and General Windu were on Lothal, and General Windu apparently loved this tea, so they brought some back. We were talking about--tea,” and he choked a little on the word, and now his skin was darkening a little, “and he suggested I take some. To surprise you.”

Kote was clearly and thoroughly embarrassed now, and Obi-Wan decided not to make things worse, so he smiled. “It’s wonderful, Kote. Thank you for thinking of me. Now,” he added, reaching for a stack of flimsi, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Kote relax and reach for Obi-Wan’s abandoned cup of Force-only-knew tea. He ducked his head, lest Kote see his grin grow wider at the neutral expression with which the man drank the awful beverage. “There is work to be done.”

:::

Over the first few months of the war, Kote’s name gradually changed to Cody thanks to a string of missions with Anakin, who didn’t know the first thing about Mando’a.

Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka had all collapsed in the same tent at the end of a particularly grueling campaign, and now sat in a little triangle, massaging each others’ shoulders and chatting amiably about everything except the war--a relaxation tactic Obi-Wan and Ahsoka had grown up with and Anakin had grown used to at the Temple. The space was a little cramped, but that served to make it warm and comfortable, helping their tense muscles to soften.

Ahsoka had fallen into a story about some friends of hers during her time as an Initiate; Obi-Wan recognized one of the names, Caleb Dume, as an Initiate with a propensity for questioning everything.

“They left me up there for _two hours_ ,” Ahsoka complained, but the tone of it was good-natured. Apparently, she had been dared to climb a tree in the Room of a Thousand Fountains and gotten stuck. “When they finally came back, they—“

She was cut off by the sounds of shouting and unexpected blasterfire, and Obi-Wan bolted upright with a blossoming of panic that wasn’t his, abandoning Anakin and almost dragging Ahsoka up with him.

His Padawan and grand-Padawan were fractions of a second behind him, lightsabers igniting with a familiar _snap-hiss_ almost in unison as soon as they were clear of the nylon tent.

“What happened?” Anakin shouted.

One of the 212th--Waxer, by the feel of him in the Force--ran past with an answering yell about a potential secondary Separatist base, coupled with quite a few more curses than Obi-Wan was used to hearing from the man. Really, Obi-Wan was already pumped too full of adrenaline to hear or understand anything that wasn’t a direct question or order, so he didn’t bother trying to parse anything comprehensible out of the response.

Obi-Wan, out of habit and a desperate need to protect the men under his command long enough to see them citizens of the Republic they served, found himself at the front lines of the skirmish for the majority of the long, tense minutes they were under fire. It was easiest to defend them from here, especially since the field was small; his position, however, carried the disadvantage of bringing those he worked most closely with ~~and cared most about~~ to the front with him, and from his vantage point he saw clearly the Super Battle Droid that took steady and deadly aim at Cody, whose back was turned and _Force, he didn’t see it, he wasn’t moving--_

If someone had asked Obi-Wan later, he would have said that the adrenaline altered his perception of time, and he had several long moments to think about his actions before he took them. Truth be told, he didn’t actually think; he hardly registered his actions before he leapt, and it was either sheer luck or the will of the Force that Anakin had been at his side and was able to protect his men, because Obi-Wan Kenobi, without a moment’s consideration, went to protect one man, and that was Cody.

Obi-Wan didn’t process his actions or what they meant until they were loading gunships and headed out of the system. They had accomplished their initial mission, but their intel had been incomplete and they needed to regroup and care for their wounded before they tried again to free the planet of Separatist occupation.

He jumped at Anakin’s hand on his shoulder and got a smirk and even a laugh from Disk, one of Waxer’s squadmates who had been wounded--thankfully, not as a result of Obi-Wan’s actions.

Anakin was surprisingly calm, all things considered, when he pulled Obi-Wan away from the men he was talking with and asked, voice low, “What did you see that was so important you didn’t say anything?”

But he knew the answer, and Obi-Wan knew he knew. Still, it took several moments of uncomfortable fidgeting and starting and stopping before he finally said, “I didn’t want Cody to get hurt.”

Anakin raised his eyebrows at the confession, but said nothing, only smiled and tilted his head, inviting Obi-Wan back to the work of making sure everyone got off-planet without trouble.

:::

If Obi-Wan kept avoiding Cody, he would notice. _Anakin and Ahsoka want me to settle an argument_ wouldn’t work forever, not with the 501st halfway across the galaxy within the next few days.

That, and Cody was smart enough that he had probably already noticed and just hadn’t said anything.

Avoiding Cody in order to avoid avoiding him, however, was most certainly not going to help anything, and it was getting quite complicated, so despite the distinct overlap in their scheduled mealtimes, Obi-Wan went to the door of his room and lifted his hand to palm it open. He stepped back, brow furrowing, when the door opened before he actually touched the controls.

Cody stood there, helmet tucked under one arm, the other hand still falling back to his side from when he had keyed in the code to unlock Obi-Wan’s room from the outside. “Sorry, sir,” he said immediately, straightening up. “I should have knocked. Don’t know why I didn’t.”

Obi-Wan found himself smiling warmly. “It’s of no consequence, my dear Commander,” he replied, and _oh_ , how easy it was to fall back into their same pattern, their same routine, an ease he had never felt around anyone else. He stepped back to allow Cody into his space, and Cody strode in with a confidence that would command a crowd.

The door _swished_ closed behind them before Cody turned on his heel, looked Obi-Wan in the eye, and said gruffly, “What happened?”

Obi-Wan tilted his head and raised his eyebrow. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific, Cody.”

“You’ve been avoiding me ever since the skirmish on Charros Four. What happened?” he demanded again.

Ah. So he had noticed.

Obi-Wan took the briefest of moments to school his expression into something resembling calm neutrality, but his heart fluttered in his chest and his hands grew clammy. “Anakin,” he said with a shrug, fighting desperately not to let his anxiety give him away.

Cody’s expression softened, just a little, the corner of his mouth quirking up a fraction of a centimeter, and in the same daring moment that Obi-Wan realized he would do just about anything to watch that expression again he stepped forward and into Cody’s space. “Not Anakin,” he admitted, his voice going softer at the way Cody didn’t move. “I think I’d like to kiss you, but only if that’s okay.”

Cody’s mouth quirked up again, and he leaned forward to allow his lips to brush Obi-Wan’s before he left the room with a smile.

:::

Obi-Wan opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again.

His hand hovered over the commlink on his wrist, then went up to wrap around his beard, and he walked the length of his cabin, then walked back to the desk.

It had been three days since their kiss and while he certainly wasn’t avoiding Cody anymore, and on the outside things were almost normal, he didn’t know what to do or what to say about it.

Not to mention the--the extenuating circumstances. The war, and the personal consequences. Obi-Wan had absolutely no plans to make Cody feel as though he had no choice in their working, platonic, and potentially romantic relationships, but by virtue of his station, maybe Cody already felt that way.

Even with all that, though, Obi-Wan couldn’t quite fight the urge to talk to him, to tell him. And, well, maybe if he did, they could have a real conversation?

But that meant… well, it meant telling Cody, and the prospect of saying anything, especially without his friend and colleague ~~and crush~~ standing in front of him demanding answers, brought back the same anxiety that it had three nights prior.

Obi-Wan paced the length of his room again. Of course, he’d had feelings for people, in the past, and even told them. Cody was different. Why should Cody be so different?

:::

Cody leaned heavily against Wolffe on their walk to the barracks from 79’s. In his defense, Wolffe was leaning back just as heavily.

“You know, it takes most people more than two weeks to fall in love,” Wolffe grumbled, a bit of a slur in his words.

“Three months,” Cody corrected, half under his breath.

“Sure,” Wolffe replied, disbelieving. “As if you haven’t always done everything faster than us, Kote.”

Cody said nothing, choosing instead to focus on getting to the barracks in one piece.

“Maybe my General can knock some sense into you,” Wolffe mused aloud after a few quiet moments.

“General Koon?” Cody asked, his voice thickening around sleep as his eyelids began to droop.

“We sometimes just call him General _Buir_ ,” Wolffe replied with a shrug that almost knocked Cody off his feet.

Had Cody been more awake, or perhaps simply less drunk, he would have come back with a jibe about loving someone within three months of knowing them (who calls their general _buir_?); as it was, all he could really do was hum.

“Actually,” Wolffe added, and he was really just talking to himself at this point, and taking more and more of Cody’s weight, “he would probably tell you to go for it. He’s a hopeless romantic.”

Cody barked out a soft, short laugh, trying to keep it quiet; they had reached the door of the barracks and there were almost certainly brothers asleep. “I’m beginning to think all the _jetiise_ are. Good night, _vod_ ,” he added, because Wolffe had carefully leaned him against the wall so Cody could walk on his own to his bunkroom at the opposite end of the barracks from Wolffe’s.

“We’re leaving at standard noon tomorrow,” Wolffe said by way of reply.

“ _K’oyacyi_ ,” Cody added.

Wolffe nodded back sharply, winked clumsily, and left Cody to his own devices for the night.

A horrible decision, really.

:::

Cody was on the bridge of _Negotiator_ the next morning, exhausted and just hungover enough he was using his helmet to block out all unnecessary sensory input, and three days early.

His general, he had learned, liked to separate his military life and his Jedi life as much as possible, and while Cody didn’t understand—his whole life was the military—he appreciated and respected that about Obi-Wan. Most sentients had something called a _work-life balance_ , and Cody would be remiss if he even suggested Obi-Wan abandon such balance, Jedi as he was.

The arrangement had the added benefit of keeping Obi-Wan on the ship for a good portion of their Coruscant leave when the rare opportunity arose, meaning Cody knew exactly where to find his general if he needed him.

Actually, he mused in a drowse-muddled mind, the fact that Obi-Wan stayed on the ship to finish paperwork and oversee repairs instead of relaxing like the rest of the men could normally be a detriment to his health.

Cody shook his head of the thought almost as soon as it had come. Obi-Wan knew what he was doing and had learned to take care of himself when he needed it. And besides, he wasn’t here to worry about Obi-Wan.

The door to the bridge slid open, and Cody turned a precise about-face to see Obi-Wan, a mug of tea at his lips, hair mussed from sleep. Cody most certainly did not blush.

“Cody,” Obi-Wan said, wrapping both hands around his mug and holding it up to his chest as though he were relying on the tea for warmth. His eyes shone and crinkled at the corners. “You’re early. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Obi-Wan brought the tea to his lips again and eyed Cody as he drank.

“I wanted to see you,” Cody replied haltingly.

Obi-Wan’s brow furrowed and he tucked the tea to his chest again. “Is something wrong, my dear commander?”

Cody shook his head immediately, then hesitated. _No. Yes. Nothing. Something. Everything._

Obi-Wan tilted his head, surveying Cody for a long moment, and then offered a soft smile and a gesture that Cody knew meant, _Follow me_.

:::

“What troubles you, Cody?” Obi-Wan had busied himself with boiling water. He thought this conversation might go over best with caf. He was sure he had a caf press hidden somewhere in the galley--

“Obi-Wan?” Cody said, tentative. He was seated on a stool they had dragged into the galley, helmet in his lap.

Obi-Wan closed the cabinet he was perusing and turned around to face Cody. “Yes, Cody?”

Cody stood up from his stool and crossed the space between them. “A few weeks ago, you asked me if it was okay to kiss me, and I kissed you.”

Yes, Obi-Wan remembered. He had been trying to decide what to say ever since.

This must be it. Cody was going to say he regretted the whole thing, or that he was uncomfortable with kissing him again, or that he didn’t want it to go any further--

“Stop that,” Cody said, firm, but it was affectionate too, soft and gentle. “I know there are plenty of brothers who don’t feel like they have a choice in their personal relationships with their generals, but I’m not one of them. I would have said something if I didn’t want to kiss you, and I know you would have respected that.”

Obi-Wan nodded, because his brain was trying to catch up with what was being said--both the implications, and the fact that Cody always seemed to know exactly what was going on inside his head.

“I wanted to say,” Cody continued, closing the distance between them further, “that I… hm.” He huffed a little. “You’re a good Jedi. A good man. And,” he added with a smirk, “not hard on the eyes.”

Obi-Wan barked out a laugh. “I could say the same about you, Cody.”

“Would you mind if I kissed you again?” Cody asked.

And first kisses--real first kisses--are always a little awkward, those few moments where one doesn’t know their partner well enough to predict how they’re going to turn their head or how much force to move forward with, that small rush of adrenaline. But if this, Obi-Wan considered, was always what kissing Cody would be like, he couldn’t find it in himself to be embarrassed.

**Author's Note:**

> HI GLIMMER I LOVE AND APPRECIATE YOU
> 
> Thank you so much to [Hawk](https://lilhawkeye3.tumblr.com/) for organizing this event. I had so much fun coming up with story ideas and writing this piece, and I forgot several times that someone else was writing for _me_ , so when I got my gift I was ecstatic. This has just been so much fun and I hope the special interest is still alive and kicking next year so I can join in again. You deserve the whole world!
> 
> And now, for the rest of y'all, here have my standard endnotes:
> 
> Thanks for reading! Consider checking out my writing blog, [Ver Writes Things](https://ver-writes-things.tumblr.com), or my Star Wars blog, [ND Clones](https://neurodiverse-clones.tumblr.com)! I take prompts and submissions and I would love to yell with you.


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